Two Beers and a Pretzel

So a month ago I packed a fair majority of my stuff into a 16′ Penske truck and hit the road with 10 days to get to LA.

With those fairly lose restrictions, I followed a slightly unconventional route.  I started by driving to my sister’s place in Tennessee for a visit with the nieces and nephew.  I swung back up through Kansas and finally saw Junction City (where I was born), and got a photo of my parents old apartment, which is now a bank.

Then it was off to Colorado to visit the 4th cousins, my friend Meghan (who I met in New Zealand), and my good friend Andrea from my days at UC.  Andrea loaned me her Jeep, so I got to drive out and see my cousins and watch Meghan perform in Guys & Dolls.  I also went to the Denver Aquarium and the monster REI store.

Leaving Denver, a tanker truck wrecked on I-70 just before Vail Pass, so I was stuck waiting for a few hours.  The scenery was nice, but it did get old after a while.

Eventually they let us turn around and go back East.  I found a back route that was quite scenic, but the delay sucked enough time out of my day that I was not able make it to Arches National Park as planned.

I made it to LA 2 days later and moved into the 1 bedroom apartment with my cousin Asa, his girlfriend Bekah, her guitarist Brian, a toy Yorkie “Emma”, and Asa’s cat, Moses.  Biggest lesson = make sure your moving truck has cruise control.  Mine didn’t.

After getting my stuff into a storage locker, we all started looking for a 3 bedroom house, but after a few weeks, Brian and I ended up getting a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in Simi Valley (with a real garage) and letting Asa & Bekah stay in the old place in Burbank.  While we were moving out, I think the animals were mad, because Emma would not stop barking until we put her in the microwave.

Then in retaliation, Moses decided to puke on Brian’s shirts:

Gross, eh?

In the meantime, Bekah’s brother came to visit from Richmond and we went with him and his new girlfriend / soon to be wife to Knott’s Berry Farm Amusement Park.  Pretty fun, and it’s owned by Cedar Fair, so there’s an Ohio connection.

We also got to visit the original Bat Cave (TV series) because Asa got a part in a movie that is filming there.

So here’s the view from my apartment (sorry – as taken by a camera phone).  Simi Valley is quite a bit nicer than San Fernando or L.A.  The other side of those hills is Malibu, so I’m only 45 minutes from the beach.

And at night.

I couldn’t part with my home theater equipment, so our living room is pretty much centered around the 100″ screen.  So far no one has complained about the subwoofer, but we usually remember to turn it down around 10 PM.  And the person above us, who we’ve nicknamed “Godzilla”, either is hiding an elephant up there, or has a very unique way of walking around.  It’s not annoying, just funny.  We almost went up there one time to see if someone was in trouble and needed help.  The only bummer is that we could only fit 3 of the 4 theater seats in the couch, but they still have the built in subwoofers, so it totally rocks…

We finished the apartment just in time for Meghan to visit.  She stayed for 2 days and we had a blast hanging out and cooking Thai food.  Then we dropped her off with another friend at a Vineyard about 2 hours North on the way to San Louis.

Now that I’m settled in and finally have high speed internet, I can catch up on everything and start planning for the future.  I hope to take a trip back to Ohio in July to see family, and go fishing.  Then, I want to take a trip to Istanbul with my buddy Musti to lean Turkish Folk music and how to play the “Oud” from his dad and, if Meghan comes along, get her into some belly dancing lessons…

That should catch everybody up.  I’ll probably get a weekend camping trip in to the Channel Islands soon, or possibly go back up to Sequoia for bit of hiking.  My biggest regret of the 2007 trip to Cali was not having my car for some of these fun roads.  Now I have it here!!!